HOWTO:Nvidia AGP FastWrites and Side Band Addressing

[gribelu]

I'm trying to DISABLE SBA but this guide won't work for me..
So, the system is an AMD64 on VIA KT800 chipset, GF 6600GT AGP and Kubuntu Feisty and nvidia 1.0-9755

cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/*

Fast Writes:     Supported
SBA:             Supported
AGP Rates:       8x 4x
Registers:       0xff000e1b:0x1f000302
Host Bridge:     PCI device 1106:0204
Fast Writes:     Supported
SBA:             Supported
AGP Rates:       8x 4x
Registers:       0x1f000a1b:0x00000b02
Status:          Enabled
Driver:          AGPGART
AGP Rate:        8x
Fast Writes:     Disabled
SBA:             Enabled

So SBA/FW are supported, FW is Disabled and SBA enabled. I should mention that i also tried this with the NVIDIA AGP driver instead of the default one.

cat /proc/driver/nvidia/registry | grep AGP

EnableALiAGP: 0
NvAGP: 3
ReqAGPRate: 15
EnableAGPSBA: 0
EnableAGPFW: 0

Judging by the nvidia registry values, SBA should also be disabled. Also, setting these values to 1 doesn't enable FW.. It's pretty clear that they are ignored.

Help?

Edit:
I found out why the options defined in nvidia-kernel-nkc didn't stick.
I had to comment out the lines in this file

cat /etc/modprobe.d/lrm-video
# Make nvidia/nvidia_legacy and fglrx use /sbin/lrm-video to load
install fglrx /sbin/lrm-video fglrx $CMDLINE_OPTS
install nvidia /sbin/lrm-video nvidia $CMDLINE_OPTS
install nvidia_legacy /sbin/lrm-video nvidia_legacy $CMDLINE_OPTS
install nvidia_new /sbin/lrm-video nvidia_new $CMDLINE_OPTS

Still, the options have no effect on the AGP driver

[KEVIN06]

I followed the tutorial and fast Write remains desactive.

its did my PC function under edgy.

supports it http://paste.ubuntu-nl.org/20586/ ?

I am feisty with the last drivers of nvidia

thank you

[gribelu]

I tried everything. It appears that with the latest kernels (?) this trick doesn't work anymore.
Anyone have a workaround? I need to disable SBA as i have stability problems with it on

[tseliot]

Add the following line to your /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-kernel-nkc :

options nvidia NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1 NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1

[gribelu]

you didn't understand my problem

options nvidia NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1 NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1

$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status

Status:          Enabled
Driver:          AGPGART
AGP Rate:        8x
Fast Writes:     Disabled
SBA:             Enabled

$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/registry | grep AGP

EnableALiAGP: 0
NvAGP: 3
ReqAGPRate: 15
EnableAGPSBA: 1
EnableAGPFW: 1

options nvidia NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=0 NVreg_EnableAGPFW=0

$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status

Status:          Enabled
Driver:          AGPGART
AGP Rate:        8x
Fast Writes:     Disabled
SBA:             Enabled

$ cat /proc/driver/nvidia/registry | grep AGP

EnableALiAGP: 0
NvAGP: 3
ReqAGPRate: 15
EnableAGPSBA: 0
EnableAGPFW: 0

Whatever the EnableAGPSBA and EnableAGPFW values are, FW and SBA stay at the default values.
I think there's a problem in Feisty or the 2.6.20 kernel that makes these options obsolete

As i mentioned earlier, this is also the case with the NVIDIA agp driver. I guess the problem is with the AGPGART from the kernel...

[benoitc]

Add the following line to your /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-kernel-nkc :

options nvidia NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1 NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1

It doesn't work with nvidia-glx-new. However it works with nvidia-glx but linux-lowatency require last version of nvidia driver.

[thom_raindog]

So, there is NO way to make SBA and FW work with nvidia-glx-new? That would suck...

[edmondt]

I added the following to my nvidia-kernel-nkc and got much better performance after rebooting, my card is a FX5700 128MB

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-kernel-nkc


options nvidia NVreg_EnableAGPSBA=1 NVreg_EnableAGPFW=1 NVreg_EnableBrightnessControl=1 NVreg_DevicesConnected=1 NVreg_VbiosFromROM=1 NVreg_SaveVBios=1 NVreg_SoftEDIDs=0 NVreg_VideoMemoryTypeOverride=0 NVreg_NvAGP=3 NVreg_ReqAGPRate=8 #(8=for 8X AGP, 4=for 4X AGP)

[thom_raindog]

Aha.. and where did you find these things?
Other people posted that EnableAGPSBA=1 and EnableAGPFW=1 did nothing for them.

What does

cat /proc/driver/nvidia/registry

show for you?

Edit:
I did the same thing and none of that seems to have and kind of effect, at least according to /proc/driver/nvidia/registry.
For instance, Enable brightnesscontroll still says "0", just like SaveBios does...

[chris_504]

So, there is NO way to make SBA and FW work with nvidia-glx-new? That would suck...

Checked it out myself..dosen't work with the new 'nvidia-glx-new' drivers.

Solution..Anyone?